The Boynton’s Eternal Bash

Thursday

Jul 19, 2018 at 5:01 AM

119 Highland St., Worcester

508-756-8458

boyntonrestaurant.com

The Boynton’s fabled barroom has drawn Worcester Polytechnic Institute students to its flame since the 1930s, when it was just a small tavern. The Boynton’s namesake is John Boynton, a well-to-do tinware manufacturer who established WPI with his life savings (a hundred thousand big ones) in 1865. Fifty years later, The Boynton’s owners purchased a neighboring dress shop to extend their offerings with a full kitchen and enough seats to fit the entire frat house in one sitting. In 2004, an additional expansion meant the whole Bioinformatics & Computational Biology department could squeeze in too. A perennial ripper was born.

Most of the bartenders have worked at The Boynton for a decade, at least. These are the officers of Phi Beta Boynton and they want you to feel welcome. Come in more than once and they’re apt to commit your regular order to memory. With over 50 beers on tap, the kegs never runneth dry. Offerings from Anderson Valley, Cigar City and Allagash placate the nerds, while locavores find kinship in 3Cross, Flying Dreams and Wormtown.

The Boynton is more than just a WPI hangout. It is the holy trinity of taverns: college bar, sports bar and neighborhood bar. God bless you if you wander in on a snow day to discover droves of local school teachers run amok. Or worse, if the Eagles are playing. At any rate, you’re just as likely to see sports fans and neighborhood residents at The Boynton as you are the university set.

The menu includes enough fried items to rival the Florida State Fair, which is exactly the sort of fare I expect you’re in the mood for while watching Belgium v England. Embrace the boom boom platter ($15.99) in all its might, anchored by lobster rangoon, fried brussel sprouts, ribs, thick pickle chips, tempura onion rings and spicy buffalo wings. Plus, in a climate where every eatery across the Eastern seaboard seems to be banning straws, the Boynton will happily serve you batched cocktails out of a branded bucket. We hope you’ll agree that a straw splurge is circumvented by the eco-friendly practice of sharing one single vessel in place of individual glassware. Genius.

You probably didn’t select The Boynton for its greens. Or, if you did, it’s because you’re a creature of habit. The Boynton’s “From the Garden” menu has looked the same since the days when John Boynton was peddling tin carts. Garden salad. Caesar salad. Spinach salad. Greek salad. Add six shrimp? A chicken breast? The Boynton’s salad menu is a missed opportunity; I believe that it’s possible to change up dishes without breaking the Boynton’s backbone. This is preventative Botox, not plastic surgery.

The specials, on the other hand, stay hip, this week’s Dusseldorf burger ($13.99) serving as a prime example of dressing up an old favorite. The Boynton’s famous half pound burger was char grilled and topped with kielbasa, sauerkraut, beer mustard, swiss cheese and pickles, then served on a warm pretzel roll. Fermentation is a serious food focus these days and sauerkraut is at the forefront; BBC even reported the probiotics in sauerkraut may reduce the risk of depression and Alzheimer’s. You can have your Dusseldorf and eat it too.

Order a Boynton bomber, served on a toasted Italian loaf with French fried potato wedges. The chicken bomber ($9.99) combines shaved chicken steak grilled with sautéed onions, then tops off with American cheese and mayo. Is there a better way to watch the Rugby World Cup Sevens?

I tend to object to carpeted dining rooms, but The Boynton stays relatively clean. The space is familiar territory for dorm dwellers, both dim and cavelike. In addition, there is nowhere I’d rather watch a sporting event. Just be prepared to run into someone you know. The Boynton is Worcester’s perpetual block party and everyone’s invited.

On my last date at the Boynton, our total came to $52.97.

Explanation of Stars: Ratings are from zero to five. Zero is not recommended. One is poor. Two is fair. Three is satisfactory. Four is good. Five is excellent.

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